I was stuck in line at Taco Bell. Our cashier pressed the buttons on the touch screen about as quickly as the sloth from Zootopia. Squirming with impatience and trying to distract my growling stomach, I started watching the girl in front of me as she ordered her novel-long list of requests.

I had to do a double-take. Her leggings looked like sleeve tattoos…on her legs. Sound confusing? It was. She topped the outfit with a tight leather jacket, strategically left hanging open on top. Her long sandy-blonde hair sported white highlights mixed with streaks of purple. Her appearance screamed tough girl. However, I’ve watched my own heart long enough to know that when a girl dresses like that, her soul’s either hungry or angry (or both…hangry?). Hungry for love and using her God-given beauty to get it. Or angry at life and using her beauty to gain power over men, to torture them with what they can’t have.

As I studied her, I felt glad that I wasn’t her, glad I had a father who valued me and taught me to expect respect from a man. “God, thank you for the life you’ve given me,” I prayed. “Thank you that I’m not in her shoes. Thank you that I’m not like her.”

Then I stopped.

Where had I heard that prayer before?

“God, thank you that I’m not like her.”

It was from a parable Jesus told. Two men go to the temple to pray, a pharisee and a tax collector. The Pharisee prays, “God, thank you that I’m not like other people–robbers, evildoers, adulterers–or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.” In other words, “Thanks that I’m so great when everyone else is so bad.” The second man, the tax collector, won’t even look up to heaven. He stands far away, beats his breast and says, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner!” Jesus says that only the second man went home justified, not the first (Luke 18:9-14).

If Taco Bell girl and I were to go to church and pray, what would our prayers sound like?

Mine would have been, “God, thank you that I’m not like her. I don’t dress to draw attention to my body, I have a decent job and I hang out with classy people.” And what would Taco Bell girl have prayed? Probably the second prayer, “God have mercy.” And Jesus would have forgiven her, not me.

Ouch. Talk about a wake-up call.

Thankfully, the Bible teaches that there’s hope for me too. I too can be forgiven, just like Taco Bell girl, because I’m the same as her.

“There is no difference, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:23-24).

There’s no difference. I’ve sinned. Taco Bell girl has sinned. We both know soul-hangry. We both know what it’s like to hunger for love, to resent the cards life has dealt us. And through Jesus, we can both be soul-satisfied.